A group of archaeologists has found near the Russian city of Smolensk the remains of Charles-Étienne Gudin de la Sablonniere, one of the generals closest to Napoleon Bonaparte, who died on August 22, 1812 from injuries caused by a Russian cannon shot .
Gudin attended the same military school as Napoleon Bonaparte and was one of the favorite generals of the French emperor. His death was a prelude to the defeat of the largest army ever formed in European history until that moment, which months later would end up withdrawing from a devastated Moscow, without grass that the horses could eat, and suffering the harassment of Russian troops and the threat of winter
A team of French and Russian archaeologists found the remains of Gudin on July 6, during an excavation in the Russian city of Smolensk, 400 kilometers west of Moscow. From the beginning, the characteristics of the burial and the state of the body (after being injured, one leg was amputated by gangrene and the other was very damaged) indicated that it was the man they were looking for. Napoleon knew well and respected Gudin. In fact after his death he ordered his heart to be taken to Paris, where he was placed in a chapel in the Père Lachaise cemetery.
A preliminary report concluded this summer that the skeleton belonged to a man between 40 and 45 at the time of his death. To confirm that it was Gudin, it was necessary to make DNA samples of the remains of his brother, Pierre César Gudin, also general in France . The request had been made formally by one of his descendants and for the identification small particles of bone tissue were used.
This search for Gudin's remains began in May and is directed by Pierre Malinowski, a historian with good connections with the Kremlin. Malinowski is president of the Foundation for the Development of Franco-Russian Historical Initiatives and has succeeded in supporting the project by Russian President Vladimir Putin. "This search would never have been successful without the support of the Kremlin," Malinowski explains to EL MUNDO, who previously worked for Jean-Marie Le Pen (National Front), and now believes that a burial with all the honors for Gudin in France can be another milestone in the improvement of Franco-Russian relations currently pursued by French President Emmanuel Macron.
Gudin was born on February 13, 1768. During the campaign of 1812 he participated in the battle of Valoutina Gora or Valútino. Marshal Ney led some 30,000 troops on the French side, which faced a Russian rearguard of some 40,000 men commanded by General Barclay de Tolly. The Russians were placed in a swampy land protected by a stream. The French lost about 8,000 men and 5,000 Russians, although some historians raise both figures. Gudin, after being injured, was transferred to Smolensk, where he died shortly after. His burial place was forgotten. Napoleon was furious after the battle, realizing that he had missed another good opportunity to destroy the Russian army. But he was also very affected by Gudin's death. His death caused great pain to all the soldiers, as can be read in a letter left by an anonymous combatant, in August 1812: «The whole army [is] crying (...) He was so brave and skilled ... A lion in battle ».
"Gudin was one of the few who guarded Napoleon, who cried when he learned of his death," Malinowski recalls. The French failure in Valutino meant that the Russians were able to regroup near Moscow. The team of researchers used the memoirs of Louis-Nicolas Davout, another French general from the Napoleonic era, who at the time organized Gudin's funeral and described the location in an approximate manner.
To have conclusive results, the samples have also been carried out on the remains of General Gudin's mother and his son, according to the weekly Le Point. It is planned that all of his bones will be taken to France to be buried with honors. A 200-year-old mystery will be closed, and perhaps a small part of the wound that has distanced the Kremlin and the Elysium.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more- culture
- history
The Paper Sphere To understand the Holocaust
Sitges FestivalThe hidden, dirty and perfect memory of Spanish cinema
The Paper Sphere Fernando del Rey Reguillo: "The two Spains are an invention of the sectarians"